18 AUGUST 2017

Lara Dominates Trout in Stylistic Nightmare

By Jason Pribila: ringside in Brooklyn: Erislandy Lara and Austin Trout are two of the junior middleweight division’s best fighters. Trout celebrated his best night as a pro the last time he visited NYC. He soundly defeated Miguel Cotto, which set up a grudge match against Canelo Alvarez. In April, he lost a close decision to Alvarez in front of over forty thousand people.

Yet when they faced off against each other it was the second televised bout of a four bout card.

The cliché of styles makes fights was never more apparent than what unfolded in this stylistic nightmare.

Lara is a pure boxer bred from the acclaimed Cuban amateur system. He fights out of the southpaw stance. Gives his opponent zero angles to attack, and is quick enough to land jabs and straight left hands.

It was Lara’s jab that did most of the damage over the first half of the fight. Trout was never able to catch or corner Lara. As he moved in without punching, he became open to straight punches. A swollen right eye made it more difficult for Trout to see the punches coming.

The crowd had become restless. Many of them were booing loudly as if the hometown Brooklyn Nets were performing on the floor.

A sizzling straight left landed by Lara momentarily woke up the crowd, while it almost put Trout to sleep. Trout fell backward with his legs awkwardly spread. He was able to beat the count and survive the round.

The final three minutes ticked off the clock, and the judges were about to make Lara’s dominance official.

The final scores of 118-109, 117-110, 117-110 reflected the “action” that took place in the ring.

Afterwards Lara made it clear who he wants next. “I did what Canelo couldn’t do. I dominated Trout.”

He continued, “Now we got to make the fight that everyone wants to see. Which is me vs Canelo.”

No one could blame Lara for calling out the division’s cash cow, but Team Canelo, as well as the majority of this crowd will pass.